World Dream Bank topic: Paralysis

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Paralysis

Dreams of paralysis, whether temporary or permanent. This is a subset of a broader list, dreams of disability.

There's a tendency in psychology to jump into symbolism, as if these dreams always speak of some missing piece of the personality... but I'm not so sure. Certainly many paralysis dreams may be based on the very real paralysis of the long muscles that happens in REM sleep (if it doesn't, you get sleepwalking!)

But I'd go further. Many of my dreams of disability in general seem to be diagnostic: health warnings about the body parts in question. They can also be social rather than psychological: in English an able assistant is called "my right arm", and dreams can similarly treat organizations or social circles as bodies subject to limb-loss, mutilation... and augmentation.

RELATED TOPICS: disabilities - weird dream diseases - dreams of weird dream doctors & medicine - chronic & recurring illnesses - diagnoses - prescriptions and healing advice - surgery - miracles - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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	AT THE DOOR: by Emily Y. Chan, 2019/3/20 or before; nightmare dream sketch There was a tall man wearing a mask standing at the door. At least I think it was a mask...
	CASSANDRA AND OTTER: by Wayan; 1982/3/14, a reassuring nightmare. I take Cassandra's prophecies seriously, but she can't make sense of my future. So we go see an otter with a crystal ball. But he's installed a new security system...
	CHRONOPHOBIA!: by Wayan; 1993/7/10, a physicist's nightmare on time's arrow I find myself driving a speeding car down a freeway--in reverse. No, not reverse gear...
	DEAD RIGHTS! DEAD RIGHTS!: by Wayan; 1983/10/1, a dream of the other side. I die young, to get it over with, like chickenpox. As I slowly revive, I face bias against the dead. So..
	A DREAM OF HELL by Herbert Palmer, 1919; recurring nightmares of loneliness I'm in Hell. No fire, no guilt. Just endless forests under the moon. My mother paints endlessly but never gets it right. A sunny day, but I can't go out to play. Cut off... CAUTION: DEPRESSION
	DREAMKU, JANUARY 2007: by Roswila; various dates up to January 2007; 31 dream-poems--mostly haiku A month of dreams full of science fiction: galactic navigation, spacedragons, oppressed fairies, alien love...
	ERODE THE MUTING CURSE: by Wayan, 2014/8/23, a dream of... health advice? The Fairy Queen curses me, taking away my language. Recovery often takes years, but I practice hard, and speak full sentences--the next day. The Queen is slipping...
	THE FLASHBACK: by Wayan; 1985/11/28, a dark dream-farce. I'm a monster working in a shopping mall in Stockton, California, when I smell smoke... CAUTION: FILM NOIR SEX
	FRANKLIN'S NECK: by a dying Kansas grandmother; 1953/7/5, an unheeded warning nightmare "Oh no" she moaned. "I don't want Frankie to go to that camp. He must not go there." She began to cry...
	GURNEY TO WHEELCHAIR TO WALKER TO CANE: by Wayan; 2011/10/10; a dream on persistence After seeing the cast of Glee interviewed, I dream I'm a paranoid cripple in music school who goes from...
	HAPPINESS UNBLOCKS ART: by Wayan; 1997/7/7, nondream book review An insight about a fictional character who unblocks her creativity changes my own life strategy...
	HELPLESSLY LUCID: by Alder; 2007/6/23, a lucid dream in which I'm powerless! I'm a homeless elf. We're a persecuted minority group. I know I'm dreaming and try to change it but...
	I LET RATS: by Wayan; 1994/4/22, a nightmare on appeasement. A bold rat comes right up to me. I don't want to provoke it, so I stay quiet. And let the rats... CAUTION: UGH!
	LBJ OR WOODROW?: by Lyndon Baines Johnson; July-Sept 1955 and Feb-Mar 1968, recurring paralysis dreams From the neck up I was me; from the neck down, Woodrow Wilson in his old age, paralyzed. My presidential aides divided up my duties, and ignored me...
	LBJ'S STAMPEDE: by Lyndon Baines Johnson; 1913-14?, a childhood nightmare anticipating a presidency As a boy I dreamt I was trapped in a wooden chair, paralyzed, as a stampede rushed toward me, just as my grandmother was paralyzed and chair-bound...
	MAHAKALA, MOZART, AND THE CRIPPLED BIRD: by Wayan; 1985/4/17, a dream on facing shadows The Christian God vs Mahakala, Buddhist god of right anger! War in Middle Earth, as Pink Floyd sings...
	MY LIPS ARE SEALED: by Wayan, 1989/6/3, a moody, psychic, epic, two-part dream. I'm a Romantic poet who defeats the curse of the fountain, to marry; but when our daughter's grown, a new curse strikes me mute, paralyzed. And I mistake this for old age! Then, in real life, my dad wakes up from a nap paralyzed...
	THE NEPALESE DROP: by Wayan; 2000/4/20, a predictive nightmare. I climb a crumbling slope to a cliff with a Himalayan view; I slip, and no one lifts a hand to help as I...
	NOT THROES; RECOVERY: by Wayan; 2013/6/1, a telepathic, diagnostic dream In a grassy depression, a small animal is thrashing. Death-throes? No. Calisthenics! But not under the animal's control. Someone's testing...
	PARALYSIS: by Emily Y. Chan, 2016/5/3 or before; nightmare sketch Had sleep paralysis early one morning while trying to wake up, and "saw" this creature or woman looming over me. She had two spider legs (if more, I couldn't see) and was smiling--with no face. Terrifying. Amazing...
	PICARDIAN ANGELS: by Wayan; 1993/1/7, a dream of time and wishes. I walk on Martinique with Captain Picard of the starship Enterprise. He's here to see a dreamy boy...
	POLYMELIA: by Emily Y. Chan, 2016/12/13 or before; a nightmare drawing I dreamed I saw this statue of a woman wearing a round hat or bowl that covered her entire head. When I got closer, a bunch of arms sprouted from under the hat/bowl, moving like spider legs...
	RIDDLE ON HER BREAST: by Wayan; dreamed 2021/3/1; a dream using sex to hide a pun I'm told a girl in an armored nutrient-bath wheechair has my shoes. I need them back. But to get them I have to answer the riddle written on her breasts. We both get a bit distracted... CAUTION: CARTOON BREASTS
	ROCKY LOVE: by Wayan; 1984/1/18, a dream farce. A friend's tragic accident confines him to disco roller skates for life! Worse yet, he's in a Rocky Relationship... CAUTION: "ROCKY HORROR" REFS, SEX
	SERAFINA AND RAM DASS: by Wayan; a 2000/11/6 dream anticipating an 11/9 experience with auras A Finnish shaman/witch gives me a lesson in night flying; in the waking world I meet Ram Dass and sense him speak astrally before his body can get the words out... CAUTION: HIGH MYSTICAL QUOTIENT; IF ALLERGIC, AVOID
	SHOCKWAVE: by Wayan; 1996/7/27, a predictive nightmare. My childhood home explodes into a vast pyroclastic cloud that comes boiling toward me, miles away... CAUTION: DOOM
	SINKING: by Emily Y. Chan, 2019/7/19 or before; sketch of a nightmare I had a dream that everyone was sinking, drowning, but still alive. No one could move, and it was just getting darker and darker with bodies. Lovely...
	SLAVES DON'T DANCE: by Wayan; 1999/8/1, a 17-page Shakespearean dream-comic (or ill. text) Stolen by the Fairy Queen, I'm forced to nurse her great project: creating life! But her synthetic baby is...
	SNAKES AND CENTIPEDES: by Russ Thornton; 2008/11/1, a shared/telepathic dream. Two snakes fight as centipedes emerge from under rocks. I tell my friend. Next day her co-worker tells her the same...
	THE TRAIN ON TIME CAFE: by Wayan, 1981/12/20, an epic political dream. Silicon Valley goes enthusiastically fascist. I hide in a berry patch. They build a shining world, and then...
	UNDO THE PARALYSIS: by Wayan; 1985/7/14, a dream on persistence. In a future society, I'm deliberately, permanently paralyzed. Yet my home-grown cure slowly works...
	WAX WALL, PUMA COMA: by Wayan; 2022/8/8, 3 surreal genderbent time-bent dreams I'm a demon girl out to sabotage a pirate radio station by climbing a tall wall of glowing wax, carrying a comatose mountain lioness on my back!
	WHO IS OUTSIDE MY WINDOW?: by Krista G.; 2008/6/25, a recurrent false-waking dream. Someone's prowling outside my window. I'm paralyzed in bed, but I force myself into action...
	WILD W.I.L.D.: by Dream Junkee; 2008/1/19, an epic lucid frustration dream? I'm lucid but paralyzed. A weird child spies on me; is she controlling me? Then I'm having sex--but if I come, I'll wake up! Then some thugs jump me. I make sure they won't bother me again, but... is everyone in this dream out to distract me? CAUTION: SEX, MUGGER-STOMPING
	YAKETY YAK: by Wayan; 1984/5/1, a dysfunctional dreamtale. I'm at a family dinner. Killer Grampa, kid-hating Ma, larcenous Dad. Then a bum offers some advice...